Medical education

2,303 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 88

Putting the humanities back into medicine

January 5, 2014Jan 5, 2014

The dream was that reason, in the form of the arts and sciences, would liberate humanity from scarcity and the caprices of nature, ignorance and superstition, tyranny, and not least of all, the diseases of the body and the spirit.…

In a local bookshop just outside of Boston, a small group made their way to their cherished celebrity bookclub. Tucked away on a foldable chair …

Patients lose when resident physicians are afraid to unionize

Flávio Casoy, MD & Joanne Suh, MD

January 5, 2014Jan 5, 2014

Just about thirteen percent of the 100,000 plus resident physicians in the United States are union members -- and many more would choose to join if it weren’t for the fierce pressure exerted by some teaching hospitals, chairs and program…

Just about thirteen percent of the 100,000 plus resident physicians in the United States are union members — and many more would choose to join if it weren’t for the fierce pressure exerted by some teaching hospitals, chairs and program directors. Although it is illegal to threaten resident physicians with retaliation for expressing their desire to form a union, the law is difficult to enforce. Ought medical educators examine …

How physician education is similar to Master Sommelier training

Linda Pourmassina, MD

December 31, 2013Dec 31, 2013

Medical school becomes a blur after a few years in practice. You forget about all the hours spent in classrooms and then every night after a quick dinner. You somehow block out the “pimping” and public humiliation of being questioned about topics not quite under your belt. The worst feeling? The fear of wondering if you will master medicine …

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Why we persevere despite a poor prognosis

Andrew Ho, MD

December 29, 2013Dec 29, 20135

Last night, I responded to a code blue while working the night float at the hospital. The patient was a relatively young female who had just completed a coronary artery bypass procedure. Per training, I began compressing her chest to…

As I pushed, the incision reopened and blood began spewing everywhere. I could feel her ribs giving and cracking from the force …

Restricting resident work hours decreases deliberate practice

Robert Centor, MD

December 25, 2013Dec 25, 20134

Pauline Chen has once again written a brilliant piece in the New York Times: Are Today’s New Surgeons Unprepared? While many comments miss her underlying question, her exposition makes the problem clear. How do we gain expertise? Current theory supports…

Pauline Chen has once again written a brilliant piece in the New York Times: Are Today’s New Surgeons Unprepared? While many comments miss her underlying question, her exposition makes the problem clear.

How do we gain expertise? Current theory supports the idea of deliberate practice. How do we conceptualize deliberate practice? Start with a sports analogy. You are trying to learn to make a 6 foot putt. …

Fax machines represent medical waste, error, and expense

Jason Theobald

December 21, 2013Dec 21, 20136

In a scene from the 1999 cult classic “Office Space,” three burned-out cubicle drones take a baseball bat to a malfunctioning printer. While I do not condone violence against innocent peripheral hardware, I admit I secretly fantasize about destroying medical…

Recently, a chronically non-compliant end stage kidney disease patient on dialysis was admitted for minimally elevated troponins and non-ST segment EKG changes in the setting of a hypertensive …

How can we encourage medical residents to truly choose wisely?

Paul Bergl, MD

December 20, 2013Dec 20, 20137

As Dr. David Green reported recently in NEJM Journal Watch, the American Society of Hematology is the latest society to comment on appropriate and cost-conscious care in the ABIM Choosing Wisely campaign. I’ve followed the Choosing Wisely campaign closely and…

As Dr. David Green reported recently in NEJM Journal Watch, the American Society of Hematology is the latest society to comment on appropriate and cost-conscious care in the ABIM Choosing Wisely campaign. I’ve followed the Choosing Wisely campaign closely and have been using it on the wards and in clinic as academic ammunition. A specialist society’s public advice about showing restraint is an excellent means to challenge the dogma of our …

Why graduate medical education is failing

J. Russell Strader, MD

December 19, 2013Dec 19, 201321

When a doctor finishes medical school, he or she then faces what is truly the most difficult part of their journey into becoming a physician: graduate medical education. The goal of internship, residency, and fellowship training programs — what is collectively called graduate medical education, or GME — is to take newly minted doctors, just out of medical school, and turn them into competent physicians, able to practice in their specialty independently. And …

Bodies are veritable storybooks of suffering and experience

Natalie Wilcox

December 18, 2013Dec 18, 20133

“Well I don’t know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain’t right,” the song hummed through the speakers of the DC medical examiner’s office. Something definitely is not right, I thought as I watched the…

“Well I don’t know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain’t right,” the song hummed through the speakers of the DC medical examiner’s office.

Something definitely is not right, I thought as I watched the pathologist and his assistant begin the first autopsy of the morning. With rough strokes, the assistant dissembled the body before us. Unlike the cadavers we had dissected one year previously, this …

Student-run free clinics: A pure form of medicine

Justin Berk, MPH, MBA

December 15, 2013Dec 15, 201313

The culture of medicine has changed and a new generation of medical students has noticed this insidious path to disgruntlement. Reimbursement rates dominate conversations among health care professionals. Physicians are slowly burning out while younger faces are tempted away from humanitarianism by lucrative lifestyle specialties. Bureaucrats, technology, and increasing health-care costs have transformed the doctor-patient relationship, and students pick up on the increasing frustration in the profession.

The few oases of …

Medical trainees have access to far too many resources

Sharon Rikin, MD

December 14, 2013Dec 14, 20135

“What is the one best test?” A test-taker's frustration boils over as they read this prompt and think, “in real life we would do all of the above.” And for the most part, they are correct. In the United States,…

“What is the one best test?”

A test-taker’s frustration boils over as they read this prompt and think, “in real life we would do all of the above.” And for the most part, they are correct. In the United States, medical trainees are taught for exam purposes to answer the one best test for diagnosis or the one best procedure for management.

However, in practice the same trainees watch our role-models take …

Teach caring people how to be caring doctors

Shirie Leng, MD

December 12, 2013Dec 12, 20136

Let’s talk for a moment about medical education. I went to a work-related party recently and rode in the elevator with a dear friend who is my contemporary, and a more senior and highly regarded faculty member known for her…

My contemporary was concerned that the emphasis on the use of advanced technologies like ultrasound …

Doctors should hone their abilities to recognize visual patterns

Paul Bergl, MD

December 10, 2013Dec 10, 2013

Nothing puts more fear into the heart of an internist than a dermatologic chief complaint. And for good reason: we have very little exposure to the breadth of the field. To us, all rashes seem to be maculopapular, all bumps…

It’s not that we internists don’t care about the skin or don’t appreciate its complexity. Rather, we simply haven’t seen enough bumps, rashes, and …

Is deep learning in medical education possible?

Tom Peteet, MD, MPH, MEd

December 8, 2013Dec 8, 20134

Despite recent buzz about shifting resident education to community health centers, hospital based education is here to stay. The model of education, though outmoded, is simple. Get residents exposed to as much disease as possible, in the shortest amount of time. The future of American health care is not in acute management of tertiary care; but in integrated, team-based care. To get there involves focusing not only on educational content, …

It’s a fearful time for medical students

Nathanial Nolan

December 7, 2013Dec 7, 201316

Imagine you, like most traditional medical students, went to college for four years to earn an undergraduate degree. Like many, you might also have obtained a graduate degree or worked for a period of time. You then spend time and money fulfilling extracurricular activities, taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), applying to schools and traveling for interviews. If you are part of the lucky minority — roughly 40 percent …

How technology will revolutionize medical training

Paul Bergl, MD

December 3, 2013Dec 3, 20137

Recently, I attended the annual AAMC meeting where the question, “What will medical education look like in 2033?” was asked in a session called “Lightyears Beyond Flexner.” After this thought-provoking session, I too pondered academic medicine’s fate. I would like…

Recently, I attended the annual AAMC meeting where the question, “What will medical education look like in 2033?” was asked in a session called “Lightyears Beyond Flexner.”

After this thought-provoking session, I too pondered academic medicine’s fate. I would like to share my reflections in this forum.

Without question, technology stood out as a major theme in this conference. And for good reason: clearly it is already permeating every corner of our …

Using simulated patients in medical education

Felise Milan, MD

December 2, 2013Dec 2, 20132

The use of standardized or simulated patients (SPs) in medical education for the teaching and assessment of clinical skills has enormously expanded the opportunities for medical students and residents to develop and practice their skills in challenging and high-risk clinical…

While many use these two terms interchangeably, most medical educators define a simulated patient as an individual who is trained to act as a real patient in order to …

The problem with peer review in scientific publishing

Robert Spencer, MD

December 1, 2013Dec 1, 20138

Over the past 300 years, the peer review process has played an integral role in scientific publishing. If you don't happen to spend your time injecting laboratory mice with toxic chemicals and submitting your results to the New England Journal…

Over the past 300 years, the peer review process has played an integral role in scientific publishing. If you don’t happen to spend your time injecting laboratory mice with toxic chemicals and submitting your results to the New England Journal of Medicine, here’s how it typically works: A manuscript is submitted to a journal using an online manager, after which editors screen the paper and decide whether it merits further consideration. At …

Making the decision to be out on a medical school application

Michelle S. Davis, MA

November 25, 2013Nov 25, 2013101

After years of pounding the post-baccalaureate pre-med pavement, I did it. I got accepted to medical school. And I did it as an out lesbian on my application. Disclosing my sexual identity on my AMCAS personal statement felt like a…

After years of pounding the post-baccalaureate pre-med pavement, I did it. I got accepted to medical school. And I did it as an out lesbian on my application.

Disclosing my sexual identity on my AMCAS personal statement felt like a big risk even though my mentors assured me that it would pay off in the end. My hesitation to be out on my primary application was due, in part, to a …

Can student run free clinics help the health care safety net?

Jennifer Xu

November 23, 2013Nov 23, 20135

While interviewing for medical schools last fall, I observed a strange phenomenon: every institution I encountered would underscore its student-run free clinic as a major highlight of the medical education they could offer. First- and second-year students would speak rapturously about the experience they gained from clinic. Working there, they said, reminded them of why they wanted to become doctors in the first place.

Today, the majority of all U.S. medical …

Medical education

Articles, page 88

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